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Harry and Louise Return to Health Care Reform Debate with a New Perspective

New Multi-Million Dollar National Ad Campaign Features the Original Harry and Louise Characters – This Time in Support of Health Care Reform

Washington, D.C. – Harry and Louise, the iconic middle class couple that helped to defeat the Clinton health care reform proposal, will be back on television – this time in support of health care reform.

Harry and Louise will be featured in a multi-million dollar television ad campaign, which will start this weekend and run for at least three weeks. The ad will appear on national cable and network news programs as well as the Sunday talk shows.

The ad campaign is the product of a collaboration between Families USA, the national organization for health care consumers, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which represents America’s leading brand-name pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

“The participation of Harry and Louise in this ad campaign clearly symbolizes how different the health reform debate is this year compared to the past,” said Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA. “With health coverage increasingly unaffordable, health reform is not a luxury, but an absolute necessity, for America’s families.”

“Every single person in America, regardless of their income, should have access to affordable, high-quality health care coverage and services,” said PhRMA President and CEO Billy Tauzin. “This is a historic opportunity for change, and working together, we can achieve our goal, which will benefit both patients and the U.S. economy.”

* Broadcast quality and digital versions of the ad are available upon request.

Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) represents the country’s leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, which are devoted to inventing medicines that allow patients to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. PhRMA companies are leading the way in the search for new cures. PhRMA members alone invested an estimated $50.3 billion in 2008 in discovering and developing new medicines. Industry-wide research and investment reached a record $65.2 billion in 2008.